And having just done a business reality check, it's nice to do a music reality check. There's a difference between what music is "Cool" and what actually sells! You'd think the record companies would try selling more of what sells, and encouraging those artists (if still alive!) to make more good music!!
Go check it out. List of Best Selling Music Artists. Who do you think has sold the most records? You can probably get most of the Top 5. But what about the next 13 artists? Mind you, I wonder how accurate the list is if Chubby Checker is in it!!
And add in the Best Selling Album and Best Selling Singles (which is amazingly UK centric)
One thing I have noticed is that nearly all of the artists record melodic simple music. You'd think we could have more of that please!
What prompted me to have a look, was a YouTube surf today. My first vinyl albums were Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon, Simon and Garfunkel - Bridge over Trouble Water. And then I progressed(!) to two artists who definitely weren't cool at the time.....Cat Stevens, and Linda Ronstadt. But if you look at where they sit on the all time selling list, they're well up there. And both Cat Stevens' and Linda Ronstadt's performances are mostly stunning on the YouTube clips. We've been badly let down by mainstream media who didn't show much of their performances at the time.
And an underrated album to add to the collection.
Linda Ronstadt - Hasten Down the Wind.
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